Page 1 of Forged in Blood

Prologue

NAZEEL DANRAATH – GRAND HEALER OF THE ORDER OF AZEZAL

Flames lick at my feet, and heat so intense it blisters my skin engulfs the three of us. Insignius releases a loud sigh and hitches his cloak up while Kameen bares his teeth, a growl rumbling from his throat. With a wave of his hand, Kameen douses the blood-orange fire consuming the trees and plunges us into darkness.

I chant a quick incantation that bathes the surrounding area in a soft glow borrowed from the light of the moon. Kameen and Insignius have no problem seeing in the dark, but although witch magic tends to be infinitely more powerful, it requires the intention of the user, unlike the inherent magic of demons and wolves.

Insignius rubs at a scorched patch of skin on his hand, and I send a wave of healing energy over us both and survey the scene we were summoned to. I count at least half a dozen charred corpses lying scattered in the nearby woods, not to mention the broken demon at our feet and his human mate dying slowly and quietly behind him, her belly swollen with child.

“You dare to summon me?” Kameen asks with a low growl.

Jadon pushes himself into a kneeling position, wincing and clutching the wooden spear lodged in his side. He pulls it free and allows the wood to fall from his hand. It rolls to Kameen’s feet, covered in blood. The wound, fatal to most mortals, is not what will kill Jadon. Demons are notoriously quick healers. It is the deep cut on his neck, the one turning his blood to poison in front of our very eyes, which will be his end. The spidery veins around the laceration are already blackened, proof that he has only moments to live. It was an injury made by a blade of rare painite—the only weapon that can kill a demon.

“I had to, brother.” Jadon glances at his pregnant mate. “She must live.”

“You summonedmeto save a human?” Kameen’s voice vibrates through the trees, rumbling the ground beneath our feet.

Jadon shakes his head. “The child. She is…” His nostrils flare. “They came for us. For our daughter. They know she’s special. She could be the?—”

“Who burned them?” Kameen jerks his head at the nearest charred body, his eyes narrowed. “You cannot summon fire, and your human…” His lip curls in disgust. Jadon is a powerful water demon, and him taking a human as his mate is a source of great dishonor to his family. His choice caused his exile. Summoning his brother—the most powerful demon alive—was a huge risk. Jadon could have used his last shred of magic to put out the flames and used any remnants of healing energy to try to save his mate. And maybe he should have.

“Shedid,” Jadon insists. “Our daughter burned them all.”

A shiver of lightning ignites my veins. “The child caused the fire from her mother’s womb?”

He nods, beseeching me with his eyes, likely trying to appeal to the feminine compassion I cannot help but feel for an unborn child. “You must protect her.”

Insignius clears his throat. “You know we cannot intervene.”

Jadon tries to stand, but his body is too weakened by the painite, and he stumbles back to the ground. He makes a grab for his older brother’s cloak, his fingers slipping over the thick black material without finding a hold. “Please, Kameen. You know what the prophecies say. She could be the key.”

Kameen snorts, but I feel his iron will softening under the pressure of his brother’s dying plea.

“Jadon,” the human calls, her voice weak like her body. Her eyes flicker closed, and Death takes her quickly, as though aware He is in the presence of a being so powerful they could bring her back to life with a snap of their fingers. But Kameen would never allow me to so blatantly disobey the ancient laws.

Jadon takes his dead mate’s hand in his and looks at his brother once more, his black eyes glistening with an urgent plea.

Kameen glances at me, and I lick my lips, tasting the ash in the air. Something in this dark night brought us here—something stronger than Jadon’s summons.

A wolf howls close by.

With another wave of his hand, Kameen turns the human woman into a flaming pyre.

Jadon howls his pain but continues to hold his mate’s hand, allowing the flames to engulf his own body.

“What are you doing?” Insignius barks. “You’re going to kill the child.”

Kameen responds with a nonchalant shrug. “The child will die anyway now that its mother’s heart has stopped beating. And we are not supposed to interfere.”

Insignius rolls his eyes. “Then what do you call this?”

The corner of Kameen’s eye twitches. “Call this curiosity.”

The sound of a baby’s cry pierces the air. The cry is not one of pain, but rather one of declaration. Goosebumps prickle along my forearms. Once again, Kameen douses the fire with a flick of his wrist, then crouches before the incinerated human corpse and the body of his brother.

“Thank you,” Jadon croaks with his dying breath.

Kameen closes Jadon’s eyes and bows his head in a rare display of sentiment. “Rest well, brother.”

---